The Universe Is Not Conscious

Recent philosophy of mind trends propose that consciousness pervades the entire universe and serves as the organizing foundation of the cosmos, reviving panpsychism, Neoplatonic Oneness, and neo-Jungian cosmopsychism. The author argues these views commit an anthropomorphic fallacy by projecting human-like consciousness onto nature. Instead, the cosmos is unconscious of itself, though it consists of dynamic, evolving information-processing systems that drive its organization and spacetime structure. Respecting the limits of language avoids a category mistake in cosmological discussions. Understanding psychic experience does not require positing a fundamental cosmic consciousness.

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Abstract

Abstract It has been fashionable in recent times to posit an ontology of consciousness that saturates all features of the universe and is the organizational ground of the cosmos itself. Against current trends in the philosophy of mind that adopt a return to panpsychism, metaphysical attempts to revitalize and rehabilitate a Neoplatonic paradigm of Oneness, and neo-Jungian perspectives that conceive of a macrosynthetic principle that explains multiplicity within holism as emanating from a transpersonal cosmopsychism, I argue that these speculations superimpose an anthropomorphic fallacy onto the natural world itself. Rather than postulate the cosmos as conscious, I suggest it is unconscious of itself despite comprising dynamic interactional patterns of evolving information processing exchange as complex process systems underlying its organizational thrust and spaciotemporal ontology. Respecting the limits of human language in ascribing consciousness to the cosmos avoids a category mistake that so often seeps into current discussions on cosmology. Understanding psychic experience does not require a metaphysical leap to postulating a fundamental ontology of cosmic consciousness.